A/HRC/34/31
l
m
n
o
p
Refugee
A refugee is a person who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is
unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection
of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the
country of his former habitual residence as a result of such [persecution] …
is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”l
Separated children
Children who have been separated from both parents or from their previous
legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other
relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is
responsible for doing so. Children may become separated at any point of
their migration.m
Statelessness
A stateless person is defined in article 1 (1) of the Convention relating to the
Status of Stateless Persons as someone who is “not considered as a national
by any State under the operation of its law”.n
Unaccompanied children
Children who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and
are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for
doing so. Children may become unaccompanied at any point of their
migration.o
Xenophobia
The term has commonly been used to describe attitudes, prejudices and
behaviour that reject, exclude and often vilify persons, based on the reality
or perception that they are outsiders or foreigners to the community, society
or national identity.p There is no universal, legal definition of xenophobia.
See Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, art. 1. A (2).
See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6 (2005) on the treatment of
unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, para. 8.
The International Law Commission has considered the definition in article 1 (1) of the Convention to
form part of customary international law (see A/61/10, Chap. II Natural Persons, Art. 8, Commentary
(3), page 49). See also UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons Under the 1954
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Geneva, 2014).
See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6, para. 7.
See ILO, IOM and OHCHR, “International migration, racism, discrimination and xenophobia” (2001),
p. 2.
15
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents